INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



that shall weave, than one which! shall make all the 

 variety of moves which are required in that complicated 

 game/ 



"Some little time afterward a particular circumstance 

 recalling this conversation to my mind, it struck me 

 that, as in plain weaving, according to the conception 

 I then had of the business, there could only be three 

 movements, which were to follow each other in suc- 

 cession, there would be little difficulty in producing 

 and repeating them. Full of these ideas, I immediately 

 employed a carpenter and smith to carry them into 

 effect. As soon as the machines were finished, I got 

 a weaver to put in the warp, which was of such material 

 as sail-cloth is made of. To my great delight, a piece 

 of cloth, such as it was, was the product. 



"As I had never before turned my thoughts to any- 

 thing mechanical, either in theory or practice, nor had 

 ever seen a loom at work, or knew anything of its con- 

 struction, you will readily suppose that my first loom 

 was a rude piece of machinery. The warp was placed 

 perpendicularly, the reel fell with the weight of at least 

 half a hundredweight, and the springs which threw 

 the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown 

 a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the 

 strength of two powerful men to work the machine at 

 a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving, 

 in my great simplicity, that I had accomplished all that 

 was required, I then secured what I thought a most 

 valuable property, by a patent, 4th of April, 1785. 

 This being done, I then condescended to see how other 

 people wove, and you will guess my astonishment 



[46] 



